Motorola Moto X Play vs Google Nexus 5: The flagship Android phones

Motorola recently announced two new Moto X flagship smartphones – the Moto X Style and Moto X Play. The Moto X Play is a less premium variant of the Moto X Style smartphone. The phone will be released in 55 countries starting August this year. The company is expected to launch the Moto X Play in the country in the coming months. As far as the competition is concerned, the Google Nexus 5 is still one of the best devices in the market with decent features to compete against the Moto X Play.

The Moto X Play and Google Nexus 5 are being offered in the similar price range featuring excellent specifications. So if you are planning to buy any of these devices, let’s compare their features in depth.

Moto X Play vs Google Nexus 5: comparison of best of the Android flagships

Design

The Moto X Play comes with a premium design with metallic accents, replaceable rear panels, and is also resistant to water thanks to a repellant coating. The phone measures 10.9mm around the waist and weighs 169 grams. The Google Nexus 5 has been manufactured by LG, and it offers a plastic-made rear panel and features crisp corners. The device is slimmer than the X Play with an 8.59mm waistline and is lighter at 130 grams. Overall, design-wise, the Moto X Play looks much better than the Google Play, but since it’s a phablet offering, the phone is tad thick around the waist.

Display and Software

Coming to the screen, the Nexus 5 arrived with a compact 4.95-inch full HD IPS LCD display bearing a pixel density of 445ppi. The Moto X Play on the other hand offers a much larger 5.5-inch full HD display with a pixel density of 401ppi. The Nexus 5 offers better colour reproduction, but if you are looking for a larger display for media viewing, the Moto X Play is the device for you. On the software front, the Moto X Play comes with the latest Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out of the box, and the Nexus 5 was released running KitKat, but has received its Lollipop update.

Configuration

The Google Nexus 5 is powered by a 2.26GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, aided by 2GB of RAM and an Adreno 330 GPU. So the device offers smooth performance. However, the Moto X Play offers much better gaming experience since it utilizes a more powerful 1.7GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 CPU, which is further supported by 2GB of RAM and an Adreno 405 GPU. For storage, the Nexus 5 comes in 16GB and 32GB non-expandable memory variants. The Moto X Play also offers the similar configuration, but it comes with a microSD card support up to 128GB.

Camera

The Google Nexus 5 arrived with an 8-megapixel rear camera with an LED flash, and a 1.3MP front snapper, and delivers mediocre camera performance. However, since the Moto X Play is a next-gen device, the phone offers amazing camera features including a 21MP autofocus rear camera with a dual-colour LED flash, and a 5MP front shooter.

Connectivity and Battery

In terms of connectivity, the Moto X Play and Google Nexus 5, both smartphones offer 4G LTE support, single SIM slots, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, micro-USB 2.0, NFC, and A-GPS. The Moto X Play has the advantage over the Nexus 5 in terms of Wi-Fi, as the phone offers latest-gen dual-band Wi-Fi support. The Google Nexus 5 is powered by a 2,300mAh battery that delivers 17 hours of talk time. The Moto X Play on the other hand is fuelled by a much bigger 3,630mAh unit that offers 30 hours of talk time. In addition, the X Play comes with a TurboPower 15 charger for fast charging. So in terms of connectivity and battery, the Moto X Play certainly wins over the Google Nexus 5.

Conclusion

When released in 2013, the Google Nexus 5 was among the best flagship devices in its era, and it still is. The phone offers excellent display, latest software, decent performance and battery, but has mediocre camera features. The Moto X Play on the other hand is one of the best flagships Motorola has ever produced featuring a phablet category display, a powerful processor, amazing camera features, and a large battery with fast charging capability. The Google Nexus 5 is available for around Rs 22,999 on the online stores, while the Motorola Moto X Play will be available for around Rs 20,000. So the Moto X Play is clearly a better device than the Nexus 5.